With a sweeping Russia sanctions bill headed to President Donald Trump’s desk, US Senator Jeanne Shaheen tells RFE/RL the legislation is intended to squeeze Moscow’s energy revenues and pressure countries buying Russian oil and gas.

Jeanne Shaheen, the senior senator from New Hampshire, spoke to RFE/RL shortly after the passage of sanctions legislation intended to target Russia’s energy revenues. Shaheen said the sanctions will force other countries, notably China, to wean themselves off of Russian oil and gas.

John Coale, the US special envoy to Belarus, spoke to Current Time shortly after the release of 25 Belarusian political prisoners in exchange for the easing of sanctions. Coale said his negotiation efforts are also meant to eventually help Belarus normalize its relations with other countries.

After brokering the release of 25 prisoners from Belarus, US envoy John Coale tells RFE/RL discuss the deal, sanctions relief, Washington’s tentative thaw with Minsk -- and where Russia fits in.

Billions of dollars in oil revenue are missing from Iran’s coffers. At the center of the scandal are shadowy middlemen known as "trustees" who help Tehran sell oil, steel, petrochemicals, and other goods abroad while bypassing international sanctions.

A web of contractors, suppliers, and others with links to Russian state giant Rosneft’s big Arctic oil project includes a billionaire associate of Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and the father of President Vladimir Putin’s purported partner, Alina Kabayeva, among others. Systema investigates.

A military airfield in Russia's Rostov-on-Don and the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in Yaroslavl were reportedly hit during a major overnight drone attack. Ukraine’s Security Service says three military transport planes and three helicopters were hit.

Russia resumed its missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities on September 17, hours after the US Congress passed a sanctions package that supporters say will increase pressure on Moscow and countries that help finance its war against Ukraine.

Iranian cinema has a long history of confronting censorship. But the Women, Life, Freedom protests changed the terms of that confrontation. Where filmmakers once worked within, or carefully around, an elaborate approval system to tell their stories, many now bypass it entirely at great risk.

The US Congress on September 16 passed sweeping legislation targeting Russia and Iran, sending to President Donald Trump a sanctions package supporters say will increase pressure on Moscow and countries that help finance its war against Ukraine.

Twenty-five freed political prisoners arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, on September 16 after they were released by Belarusian authorities. The US special envoy to Belarus, John Coale, said their release was secured in exchange for Washington's agreement to lift sanctions on two Belarusian companies.

The US military says traffic in the Strait of Hormuz continues to gain momentum amid concerns that escalating fighting between Saudi Arabia and Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen threatens another vital artery for global oil supplies in the region.

A military training exercise in Serbia featured Chinese-designed quadruped robots firing weapons, as concerns mount over Beijing-linked technology facilities being set up in the Balkan country.

Russian drones hit a passenger train in southern Ukraine on September 16, setting a train ablaze. No causalities were reported. Another Russian drone strike killed five people on a bus near Nikopol, according to officials. The strikes follow an uptick in attacks on civilian transport in recent days.

The 58-year-old Thaci, and three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army who fought Serb forces in the 1998-99 war, was convicted on four counts of war crimes: illegal and arbitrary arrest and detention, cruel treatment, torture, and murder.

In an interview with RFE/RL, Asrin Mohammadi recalls how her brother was killed during the brutal state crackdown on the Women, Life, Freedom protests that began four years ago.

US special envoy John Coale announced that 25 people were released from Belarusian prisons in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on two Belarusian companies following his talks with the country’s longtime authoritarian leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko.

An international tribunal in the Hague on September 16 said it has found former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander and later Kosovo President Hashim Thaci guilty of war crimes and sentenced the 58-year-old to 25 years in prison.

The US indictment targets five people, including two men linked to Russia's main intelligence agency, who plotted assassinations and sabotage in the United States and Europe.

sweeping Russia sanctions bill championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham cleared a key procedural hurdle in the US House of Representatives on September 15, setting up a final vote on legislation that supporters say would increase pressure on Moscow and strengthen US support for Ukraine.